


pogue at heart

by eminy



Category: Outer Banks (TV)
Genre: Kid Fic, flower child, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:28:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24009640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eminy/pseuds/eminy
Summary: The difference between kooks and pogues primarily lies in money. It’s the classic class divide: those with money and those without. But it’s not the only difference. It also has to do with the type of attention they receive. Kooks have camps with prepared lunches and organized activities all summer long. Pogues are given a time a time to be home for dinner and that’s it.So this is basically a fic about why Kie is a pogue at heart, and also how they all met.
Relationships: JJ & Kiara & Pope & John B. Routledge
Comments: 3
Kudos: 48





	pogue at heart

**Author's Note:**

> Idk what this is....

The difference between kooks and pogues primarily lies in money. It’s the classic class divide: those with money and those without. But it’s not the only difference. It also has to do with the type of attention they receive. Kooks have summer camps with prepared lunches and organized activities all summer long. Pogues are given a time a time to be home for dinner and that’s it.

This is one of the reasons why the boys consider Kie a pogue at heart. Yes, her parents own the Wreck, but it wasn’t always the cash cow that it has become. It started as a passion project, and her parents put their sweat and tears into building their restaurant into a classic Kildare establishment. And because of that, Kiara had the same type of unsupervised freedom the boys did.

When Kiara was little, her dad spent all his time in the kitchen perfecting his recipes. Kiara could be found either buckled into a high chair as the official french fry tester in the kitchen, or strapped to her mom’s back as she waited tables. She’d grab at her mom’s hair and steal the hearts of the tourists (“Oh look at this sweet family, we must be eating a local hole-in-the-wall”) and the hardened local fisherman as well (“Gotta love a family working together make ends work”).

When she learned to walk and talk (and get into things), her parents started to give her tasks to do around the restaurant. Not because they thought she could actually help in a meaningful way, but to keep her busy while they bustled around. Plus, it was cheaper than a babysitter. She would follow the waitress around and give her recommendations on what to order. The regular customers loved to play into her “game”.

“Hmmm,” they’d say with a knowing smile on their faces peering down at the little girl with pigtails in her hair and jelly shoes on her feet, “I just don’t know what to order. What do you like?”

“My faaaaaaaavorite is the chocolate milkshake, but Mommy and Daddy say that’s not a real meal” she would reply very seriously, “so go for a hot dog.”

Kiara would scrunch her face up when they didn’t pick her choice, but she never judged (her choice would change every week as it was).

She would set the tables, (well she tried, only occasionally did her work not need to be corrected), and she was in charge of bringing crayons to the tables with families. That was her favorite because she’d get to see other kids. Hanging around a restaurant all day long didn’t leave Kie much time to play with friends.

Usually after the breakfast crowd and before the lunch rush, Kiara would get bored of helping and go outside to play by the dock and catch bugs and all sorts of critters.

“Kiara, can you bring crayons to the boys in at the corner table sitting with Big John?” Kiara’s Mom, leaned out over the railing. Kiara was sitting in the grass by the dock, she had picked all the dandelions insight and had been trying to see how many she could wear at once. Her hair had been pulled out of the careful ponytail her mom pulled in back into earlier that day, and luckily her wild curly hair held flowers well in its tangles. Not to mention she put flowers in the straps of her purple overalls and the front pocket. Kiara’s mom shook her head at the sight of her daughter looking like a literal flower child, knowing she’d be sweeping dandelions off the floor for days to come.

Delivering crayons to a table with a blonde boy in a red hat and brunette boy in the corner, Kiara walked very carefully as to not knock any off the flowers off herself.

“Here ya go, I suggest you start with the octopus, he’s my favorite to color.” Kiara dropped off the crayons and pointed out her favorite animal on the coloring placemats in front of the boys.

“Why thank you, miss” Big John said with a smile at the precocious girl covered in dandelions woven in her hair and in between her sandal-clad feet. Big John regularly came to the wreck top pick up his lunch, but rarely ate in, and never had boys with him before, “Remind me what your name is again?”

“My name is Kiara, and I will not be your waitress today.”

That line always got her a chuckle from adults.

“Well, Kiara, I hope our waitress is just as floral as you are. John B, JJ, say thank you for the crayons,” Big John looked to the boys sitting across from him.

The brunette boy said “Thank you Kiara.”

And when it came to be the blonde boy’s turn to speak, he blurted out, “Are you a fairy?!?”

“I’m not a fairy, stupid.” Kiara scrunched up her nose and furrowed her brow causing one of the yellow flowers behind her ear fell to the floor.

“You have flowers all over you.” The brunette pointed out.

“I’m much bigger than a fairy.” Kiara argued putting her hands on her hips knocking more flowers off her t shirt sleeves.

“You’ve seen a fairy?” The blonde’s eyes went wide.

“Well, no…” Kie replied somewhat sheepishly. The boy looked so excited at the prospect of meeting a fairy. “But I imagine they are small, so they can fly better.”

The blonde nodded in agreement. And silence fell over the table briefly before the brunette boy asked, “Do you have any more flowers?”

Kie smiled big and proceeded to show the boys her “garden” behind the restaurant while Big John ordered for them. At some point while Kie was decorating the boys with flowers by putting them in their hair, sticking out from under the blonde’s hat, she decided that she liked these boys and she wanted to be their friend.

And that was all it took. A friendship was born.

Following that summer, they were all put in the same kindergarten class. In only the fourth recess did the gang find its last piece: Pope. John B wanted to play four square, and decided the boy who Ms. Murray insists keep his hats in his cubby during lessons would be the perfect person to round off their numbers. That boy was Pope. Their friendship cemented over scrapped knees earned in some of the most intense four square games their elementary school had ever seen.

As Kiara grew up, she was still an institution at the Wreck, reading her books on turtles at the end of the dock, greeting the boats as they came in, and doing her homework at the counter, but she also gained more freedom. As the restaurant gained popularity, her parents hired more staff, and decided she only needed to be at the wreck for one shift a day over the summer. It made it easier not to have a kid around all day who would follow everyone around asking questions. The rest of the time she could do what she wanted.

That’s where another big difference between kooks and pogues comes into play. Choice. Kiara chose to hang out with her boys on the cut, instead of going to the Island club her parents petitioned so long to belong to. She choose fishing, building treehouses and forts, and exploring the marsh, over curated, supervised activities.

That’s why Kiara was a pogue at heart; she had large chunks of free time and choose to spend it with three boys that would always have her back.

**Author's Note:**

> So like, here's the thing. This fic was not planned at all. It just sort of happened? Which is why it kind of ends abruptly? I'm not super happy with it. I might even re-work it later....
> 
> Also I fully don't know if I am stepping on the toes of canon with how they meet and how old they are when they meet. So my two cents, don't take this fic seriously, just absorb the image of a smol child Kiara covered in dandelions and then move on. 
> 
> But.... like..... also..... there might be the possibility for more? Like a follow-up about Kiara's kook year and the #poguelife implications. 
> 
> I don't know, this show might be melting my brain.


End file.
